La Borinqueña
INDEPENDENT COMICS IN THE MEDIA YOUTUBE: ABOUT THE COMIC: Inspired by the Puerto Rican national anthem of the same name, the superhero La Borinqueña is Marisol Ríos de la Luz is a regular girl born in Brooklyn to an Afro-Puerto Rican father and a white Borícua mother who learns of her extraordinary strengths during a visit to la isla. She flies as forceful as a hurricane’s winds, has the strength of the waters of the Caribbean sea and can teleport wherever her people need her help. La Borinqueña will make her debut this summer at the Puerto Rican Day Parade. She also will be featured in a comic book to be printed in the fall during an event organized by Miranda-Rodriguez called Café Con Comics (“Coffee With Comics”); it will be held at the Center for Puerto Rican Studies-Centro, CUNY East Harlem campus building in a historically Puerto Rican neighborhood. “This comic book that I’m writing with my team is not going to solve the debt crisis in Puerto Rico,“She is symbol of patriotism at a time when Puerto Ricans need to be reminded of their superpowers,” Miranda-Rodriguez, who created the comic book after pitching the idea to the National Puerto Rican Day Parade, said. “She is a patriotic symbol of hope for Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans. We don’t need to look outside of us for the power—we have it inside. If we come together, we will win.” The comic book will be written in English with some Spanish palabras sprinkled in. On its cover, which Miranda-Rodriguez posted on his instagram on Friday, the Afro-Latina superhero is donning a curve-hugging bodysuit with the stripes and colors of the Puerto Rican flag, though its star is moved from the top-center of the bandera to La Borinqueña’s heart, symbolizing her love for her country. Behind her stands prominent puertorriqueñoslike salsero Hector Lavoe, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, scholar Arturo Schomburg and political prisoner Oscar López Rivera, among others, waving their flag joyously. LIVE ACTION: La Borinqueña La Borinqueña model Stephanie Llanes.jpg|La Borinqueña model Stephanie Llanes La BoStephanie Llanes rinqueña model and creator EDGARDO MIRANDA-RODRIGUEZ.jpg|La BoStephanie Llanes rinqueña model and creator EDGARDO MIRANDA-RODRIGUEZ The Puerto Rican Day Parade has had myriad special guests over the years, but none like this. Santurce, Puerto Rico, native Stephanie Llanes, 28, a recent University of California, Berkeley, School of Law graduate, will be donning patriotic polyester atop a float Sunday as comic book heroine La Borinqueña. Like her super-powered, fictional counterpart created by Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez , Llanes is devoted to the fight against social injustice, making her the ideal person to portray a character who’s supposed to embody hope. “(Edgardo) wanted someone who actually represented what La Borinqueña stands for, not just someone who somewhat (physically) resembles the character,” says Llanes. “To be honest, I’m nervous in (that) I feel like it’s an incredible responsibility in the sense of what she represents. She’s a freedom fighter; she’s fighting for the freedom of Puerto Ricans, and not just on the island, but diasporic Puerto Ricans. “I’m carrying the weight of that responsibility, and I think that’s the nervous part.” Llanes, who’s three-quarters Puerto Rican and one-quarter Dominican, will be in costume Sunday at the parade and mingling with the crowd. “It’s kind of a surprise exactly what I’m going to be doing,” she says. “What we could tell people is they’ll have to go to the parade to see what La Borinqueña will be doing.” While her true identity is of a buttoned-up law student, Llanes is no stranger to performing before a crowd — as a teen, she was a reggaeton artist who went by the stage name Felina and recorded two albums in English. Then she found her true calling. “When I was 19, moral decisions drove me to kind of steer my life in a different direction,” says Llanes, who has been preparing for the bar exam and starts working at the Center for Constitutional Rights in September. “So I started community college and was involved in a lot of racial justice activism. The ability to go to school gave me the opportunity to really understand what was going on with my family, in terms of poverty, and then just see how that was attached to what was happening more broadly to the Puerto Rican (and) African-American communities. I’ve been involved in racial justice activism ever since.” As to how her family has reacted to her interesting gig this weekend, Llanes recalls her younger sister being excited for her, but not shocked. "She said, ‘You’ve always been a superhero to me,’ ” Llanes says. Category:Comic Books in the Media Category:Comic Book TV Series Category:Independent Comics Category:La Borinqueña